Splatoon 2’s first headset looks like a mess

The original Splatoon was a fresh introduction for Nintendo and for online shooters in general. It was fast, charming, and just a bunch of fun — made even better when playing with friends. However, while on my PS4 I could load a group chat with friends faster then someone could locate their Nintendo friends code; so while playing with friends on Splatoon I instead had to resort to actually making a phone call to chat with my fellow squids.

With the release of the Switch there was a lot of talk of Nintendo really coming to grasps with online connectivity, bringing us in-game chat. In January, President of Nintendo America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, made it very clear they were heading in a direction to avoid “bulky gamer headsets”. Instead the in-game chat would be facilitated via your smart phone using your very own earbuds you already use.

Fast forward to today and someone may want to check with Reggie what he classifies as a “bulky gamer headset”. Tweeted by the official Japanese Splatoon twitter, we were treated to the first look at what has been dubbed the “Empera Hook HDP” being developed by third-party company, HORI.

そんなフォーリマのギアをかたどった「ステレオヘッドセット エンペラフックHDP for Nintendo Switch」が、ホリさんから発売されることが決定した！
着脱可能なフレキシブルマイクが付属し、当たり前だが、実際にヘッドセットやヘッドフォンとして使用できるぞ！ pic.twitter.com/KYTxdfJfEv

— Splatoon（スプラトゥーン） (@SplatoonJP) June 1, 2017

At first these look, albeit a little odd, sleek and simplistically designed. It wasn’t until the second image appeared that fans started to get concerned about the Splatoon specific hardware.

Your new headset first will need to be plugged into a squid shaped dongle, from there the dongle will split with one connection heading to the switch and the other connection to your phones audio jack — hope you don’t have an iPhone 7 because then you’ll also require an adaptor.

If this over-convoluted setup is right down your alley well then it will be available in Japan on July 21st for around $40 AUD alongside the international release of Splatoon 2.